


Reckless

by themerrygentleman



Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Alien Planet, Gen, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2015-11-18
Packaged: 2018-05-02 04:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5234924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themerrygentleman/pseuds/themerrygentleman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On errantry on a distant alien world, Nita and Dairine Callahan find time for an important conversation in the calm before the storm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reckless

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally posted as a response to a prompt on tumblr ("one character saving another"), but I liked the end result enough that I thought I'd share it over here, as well. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Also, a heads-up for anyone with a phobia: there's a brief mention of needles.

Under a stormy goldenrod sky, the wind howled through endless acres of dusty scrubland. The tangled, low-lying plants that clung to the barren earth shuddered stiffly in the gale, covering the landscape with rippling patterns in shades of purple, orange, and rusty gold.

This planet had had a name, once. For any wizard who cared to look it up, the manual would have a record of it, pulled from the traces of archaeological data left behind by some long-vanished civilization. But nowadays, various criminal elements in this part of the galaxy referred to the place in much more colloquial, functional terms—ones that denoted an empty, forgotten place where unsavory business could be taken care of, far away from prying eyes.

A young wizard appeared from nowhere at the heart of the storm-tossed plain and started purposefully walking forward, kicking away the strange plants as they tangled around her ankles. The wind caught her long brown hair and threw strands of it into her face, and she hugged her down vest closer to her body against the chill.

After a few minutes of walking, she paused, surveyed the terrain and nodded in satisfaction, apparently having found what she was looking for: a patch of ground that was mostly bare, cracked earth, free of the surrounding vegetation. Kneeling down, she produced a long, slender object: a wizard’s wand, carved from the wood of a tree that grew countless light-years away. With it, she began to draw in the dirt, her movements brisk and efficient.

Glowing blue lines of light followed the tip of her wand as she drew, and within minutes, the shape of an elaborate spell diagram was shimmering against the ground, multiple interlocking circles that indicated a work of considerable complexity and power was underway. The wizard finished constructing the spell, signed her name to it, stood up, brushed the dust off her knees, and frowned down at the finished diagram, checking her work.

It was then that they came for her.

They appeared from nowhere, just as she had, surrounding her on all sides within moments. Five or six of them, roughly humanoid, but their features far too pale and smooth for any human’s. They might have reminded an Earth native of particularly eldritch jellyfish from the depths of the sea: long, silky, translucent membranes trailed from their bodies like robes, and their skin seemed to shimmer with an odd subsurface light.

Although it clearly hadn’t been enough to help her evade capture, the wizard’s mission précis had included a brief sketch of who these people were, and what they wanted. They’d been conducting a series of very unethical experiments out here in the wilderness, forcing other species to conform to their own dangerous ideas of evolutionary uplift—ideas that the Lone Power undoubtedly had a hand in inspiring.

The nearest of them grabbed the wizard’s arm and tilted its head to inspect her, its eyes dull sparks buried beneath the membrane. Noting the spell diagram under their feet, it wasted no time in scuffing out the borders of the circle, then returned its attention to its captive, running a scanning device over her several times with a routine air. After some communication back and forth in a deep, warbling language, one of its brethren approached, with a device that was clearly equivalent to a syringe—to knock her out, to start the experimentation right there and then, or some other sinister purpose.

As they closed in, the wizard’s form abruptly vanished, just as suddenly as it had appeared on the plain in the first place. Her former captors turned this way and that, shocked, and tried to leap into a defensive posture—only to slam into the walls of an invisible cage of hardened air.

Two new figures appeared from nowhere in particular and strode over to inspect their handiwork: what appeared to be the same human female wizard who had just vanished, brandishing her rowan wand; and another, shorter, with flaming red hair, clutching a laptop computer.

“Worked like a charm,” Dairine Callahan said with satisfaction, kicking the side of the cage and ignoring the aliens’ burbling noises of outrage just inches away. “You know that was the first spell I ever used? Good old Copy utility. Some things never go out of style.” She patted her laptop’s case affectionately.

“I can’t pretend it wasn’t a little creepy seeing that other version of me, though,” her sister Nita added, and shuddered, not from the wind this time. “Like something out of a weird dream. What is it they say? Travel far enough on the High Road and you always end up meeting yourself…”

Dairine rolled her eyes, unimpressed. “Yeah, well, no need to worry about that just yet. It’s not like the Copy utility gives you anything like a  _real_ second self. This one was pretty much just my saved copy of your shorthand name in the Speech, plugged into some hard-light imaging routines–basically just a fancy hologram capable of a few simple tasks. We probably only got away with it this time because these guys have never seen humans before, so they didn’t know all the subtle clues to look for. You really want to see double, you’ll have to go talk to Darryl.”

“Right. You know,  _your_ copy from way back when only fooled Carl for about five seconds.” Nita grinned and elbowed her sister. “It wasn’t as bossy or opinionated as the real thing. Guess you can’t copy  _that._ ”

“Shut up,” Dairine snapped, elbowing Nita right back, but snickered nonetheless.

Nita’s grin softened into a quiet smile. “Seriously, though, thanks. I owe you one.”

Dairine turned away from her, studying the low hills that rolled across the horizon. “You can pay me back by not being so damn reckless all the time, then,” she muttered. “What is it  _with_  you lately? I can’t believe you were seriously just going to charge in there for real before I suggested using Spot’s Copy utility. Just look what would have happened; I’m glad I could give you that helpful little demonstration! And seriously, what was it you did last time I left you alone for five minutes—brought the Martians back and then  _dumped an ocean on them?_ ”

Nita couldn’t hold back a snort of surprised laughter. “ _You_ telling  _me_ not to be reckless? Am I talking to the same person who got wizardry and immediately ran off to the edge of the Universe to punch Darth Vader in the face? We’re setting some all-time irony records here.”

Dairine scowled, still not turning to face Nita. “Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s different. I can look after myself, you know that.”

She stopped speaking for a moment, drawing in a sharp breath that shook a little. When she started talking again, her voice was smaller than Nita could remember hearing it for years. “I just…don’t want to see what just happened, happening for real, okay?”

Silence fell for a few moments, the space filled only by the whistling of the wind. Dairine kicked at one of the purple shrubs and rubbed surreptitiously at her eyes, and Nita pretended to assume it was because of the cold stinging them.

“I think I know how you feel, Dair,” Nita said quietly after a while. “Because of, you know, my precognition. I’m still working on it with Tom, trying to find ways to control it better, but…I still end up seeing a lot of stuff I really don’t want to come true.” She shrugged. “So I give it everything I’ve got trying to make sure it doesn’t. That’s what the job’s all about, after all.”

Dairine turned around and looked at Nita properly, and after a moment, gave her a slow nod. “So we’ll both keep trying, then.”

Nita smiled. “It’s a deal.”

The calm was interrupted by a noise like someone thumping on glass, and the two wizards turned to find the nearest of their prisoners glaring at them. Despite its extraterrestrial features, neither of them had trouble recognizing an expression of impatience on its face.

Dairine chuckled. “ _Someone’s_ in a hurry to get locked up. Well, I’m sorry, but that’s the price you pay: when you try to play God with other species, you just have to sit around and wait while the rest of us talk about our feelings. Okay, come on, let’s haul these guys to the Crossings and make our report.”

Working together, Nita and Dairine laid out another spell circle, this one especially complicated due to the number of extra passengers involved. Within moments, they’d activated it, and all the sentient beings on the plain vanished as one, leaving behind a desolate space disturbed only by footprints and the distant grumble of alien thunder.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Reckless](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13442436) by [fulldaysdrive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fulldaysdrive/pseuds/fulldaysdrive)




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